The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“SERIOUS PROBLEMS FACING THE HIGH TECH INDUSTRY” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Labor was published in the Senate section on pages S2715-S2718 on March 27, 1998.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
SERIOUS PROBLEMS FACING THE HIGH TECH INDUSTRY
Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, it's painfully obvious that the nation faces a serious problem in providing our companies with the skilled workers they need to grow and create jobs in America. We do not need a report to tell us there's a problem. All one needs to look at are the job ads in newspapers and on the Internet which are exploding with offers of high tech jobs that cannot be filled. There are even reported shortages of the recruiters needed to recruit other skilled workers.
There is ample evidence that companies face an inability to fill key skilled positions. The Federal Reserve's latest survey of nationwide economic conditions made public on March 19 stated ``shortages of both skilled and entry-level workers worsened.''
The unemployment rate among electrical engineers nationwide is 0.4 percent. Congressional testimony shows that leading American companies like Microsoft and Sun Microsystems have over 2,000 unfilled positions each. CEOS of companies like Dell Computers and Texas Instruments warn that America's global leadership in high technology fields will be threatened if this problem is not addressed. ``We are disarming the economy of the United States if we don't allow skilled workers to come in,'' explained Dell Computer Corp. CEO Michael Dell.
Companies are so desperate for workers they are even hiring teenagers part-time at $50,000 a year, as The Washington Post reported in a March 1st front-page article. The National Software Alliance, a consortium of concerned government, industry, and academic leaders that includes the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force has warned that the current severe understaffing could lead to inflation and lower productivity and threaten America's competitiveness.
And in the last two years, difficulties finding workers, economic growth and the globalization of business has led to a dramatic increase in the use of H-1B visas for skilled foreign-born professionals. The situation has changed so swiftly that the allotment of these visas will be exhausted an astounding four to five months before the end of this fiscal year.
The recent General Accounting Office report is little more than an inside-the-beltway squabble over how to measure shortages that ignores the real marketplace. The GAO report focused on one study by the Commerce Department, a study that was not even raised by witnesses at a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on H-1B visas. In turn, the Commerce Department has responded by criticizing GAO for doing a report that ``contains several inaccuracies.''
The GAO acknowledges it ``did not perform any independent analysis to determine whether a shortage of IT workers exists in the United States'' but merely critiqued the methodology of a Commerce Department study, a critique the Commerce Department critiques. In fact, the GAO does not question that the U.S. economy will create more than 100,000 jobs a year in information technology over the next decade.
There is a legitimate debate about how best to address the supply of needed skilled workers. The legislation I have introduced is a balanced approach that utilizes a combination of college scholarships for young people, training for the unemployed, and an increase in foreign-born professionals on H-1B temporary visas. The legislation, supported by my colleagues Senators Hatch, McCain, DeWine, Specter, Grams and Brownback, will be strongly pushed before the April recess. If American companies cannot find home grown talent, and if they cannot bring talent to this country, a large number are likely to move key operations overseas, sending those and related jobs currently held by Americans with them. We do not want that to happen. I encourage my colleagues to support the American Competitiveness Act.
I ask unanimous consent that letters of support for the bill from Empower America's Jack Kemp, the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, and the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, as well as recent editorials in the Oakland Press and the Washington Times be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
March 18, 1998.Hon. William J. Clinton,President of the United States,The White House, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. President: As you are aware, America's high-technology firms are among the most dynamic and innovative in the world today. From the stock market--where the current boom has been fueled, in large part, by high-tech stocks--to the retail market--where consumers benefit from steadily decreasing prices and expanding choices--the success of U.S. high-tech businesses has played an integral role in creating prosperity and opportunity that transcends Silicon Valley.
Despite aggressive recruitment and education efforts, America's high-technology sector faces a severe labor shortage. The unemployment rate among electrical engineers has plummeted to 0.4%. According to the Information Technology Association of America, more than 346,000 skilled positions remain vacant. A shortage of skilled workers is preventing high-tech U.S. firms from growing at their full potential.
By November of 1997, the U.S. issued its annual cap of 65,000 H-1B temporary visas, which allow skilled foreign professionals to work in the United States. This year the cap will be hit at least four months before the end of the fiscal year, shutting the door to thousands of skilled employees and causing serious disruption to high-tech industry. U.S. companies and universities will effectively lose access to a crucial pool of skilled labor within eighteen months unless the cap is expanded. This will devastate many of the most dynamic sectors of our economy.
In public statements by Commerce Secretary Daley, and in Congressional testimony from the Department of Labor, your administration has not only expressed opposition to increasing the cap; it has insisted on vastly expanded regulatory burdens that will dramatically reduce U.S. employers' access to this key source of personnel.
Equally troubling, these so-called reforms are packaged in a way that can only be described as anti-immigrant, and I do not use the term casually. It cannot be lost on Department of Labor officials that the majority of the people entering the United States on-H-1B visas are of Hispanic or Asian Pacific origin. Cypress Semiconductor CEO T.J. Rodgers recently testified to Congress, ``Most of our H-1B hires are individuals of either Asian Pacific or Hispanic descent, just like many other immigrants. Neither these individuals nor anyone who comes through the family immigration or refugee system should be maligned unfairly for `taking away American jobs.' '' I agree.
Mr. Rodgers has also stated, ``We would lose jobs without our immigrant talent. The logic of those who claim otherwise including high-ranking members of the Clinton Administration, borders on folly.''
I have been dismayed to hear nativist appeals to ``protect U.S. workers'' coming from the Labor Department. I urge you t overrule those protectionist sentiments and support an increase in the H-1B cap without attaching new and highly restrictive measures that will harm the H-1B recipients, U.S. employers, and the U.S. economy. These new burdens will ultimately cost American jobs by pushing American firms offshore.
I also urge you to support the American Competitiveness Act, authored by Senator Spencer Abraham. This bill increases the cap on H-1B visas sufficiently to meet the current needs of companies and universities; it provides college scholarships for 20,000 more young people a year to study in math, engineering, and computer science; and it targets enforcement at serious violators of the H-1B program, rather than restricting the ability of law-abiding employers to hire needed employees.
The American Competitiveness Act will allow an additional 25,000 skilled workers to enter the United States this year on H-1B visas. This and its attention to education will help to ameliorate labor shortages in high-tech industry now and in the future. In the interest of encouraging economic growth and expanding employment opportunities throughout the entire economy, I hope that you will instruct members of your administration to end their nativist attacks and support Senator Abraham's bill.
Very sincerely yours,Jack Kemp.
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National Asian Pacific
American Legal Consortium,
Washington, DC., March 26, 1998.Senator Spencer Abraham,Dirksen Senate Office Building,Washington, DC.
Dear Senator Abraham: We are writing to you regarding your proposal, S. 1723, which seeks to increase the annual number of H1-B visas to allow U.S. companies to employ additional foreign-born professionals on a temporary basis. First and foremost, we would like to thank you for your leadership in Congress in support of legal immigration. In particular, the Asian Pacific American community recognizes your strong leadership in ensuring the preservation of family immigration during the 1996 debates in Congress.
Your proposal to increase the annual number of H1-B visas further highlights the significant contributions that immigrants make to this country and to the U.S. economy. As you know, 38% of those entering the United States through the H1-B program are from Asian countries, with the largest numbers coming from India, China, Japan and the Philippines. Your proposal, if passed, will help to guarantee that the American economy will continue to benefit from the talents and skills of individuals from Asia.
It has come to our attention, however, that House Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) is preparing to add a provision in the companion House bill which would impose new restrictions on family immigration. Although we support the entry of more professionals under the H1-B visa program, we would oppose any legislation that contained provisions to limit or further restrict the current family immigration system in any way. We understand that you will strenuously oppose any attempt by Rep. Smith or others to add a ``poison pill'' provision on family immigration, and that you will withdraw your bill if such a provision is in fact added to the final version.
In addition, we hope that you will be vigilant in pushing for all appropriate safeguards and measures to protect the wages and working conditions of H1-B workers, with proper enforcement mechanisms should an employer fail to comply with these measures.
We understand that your bill will be marked up on April 2 before the full Senate Judiciary Committee. We support your bill based on your commitment and continued assurance to withdraw the bill if a provision is added that limits or further restricts family immigration in any way.
Sincerely,
Karen K. Narasaki,Executive Director.
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U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce,
Washington, DC, March 26, 1998.Hon. Spencer Abraham,U.S. Senate,Washington, DC.
Dear Senator Abraham: On behalf of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce we would like to congratulate you for introducing legislation such as the American Competitiveness Act. This legislation will help many Hispanic-owned businesses in finding the key personnel they need to grow and prosper in an increasingly competitive global market.
As you know, many companies are finding it extremely difficult to find skilled personnel. Clearly there is a shortage of skilled workers in America, particularly in high technology fields. This has meant that many companies are leaving positions unfilled, which affects their ability to provide new products and services to customers, and to create more jobs in this country. Moreover, many of our members are establishing greater ties to global export markets. To succeed, they often need people who have grown up and experienced the cultures and markets to which these companies are exporting.
The need for skilled people will not disappear soon. And your legislation takes a balanced approach by raising the cap on H-1B visas for foreign-born professionals, while also increasing efforts at education and training in this country.
As you know the USHCC's goal is to represent the interests of over one million Hispanic-owned businesses in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. With over 210 Hispanic Chambers of Commerce across the country, the USHCC has become the umbrella organization which actively promotes the growth and development of Hispanic entrepreneurs.
Sincerely,
Jose F. Nino,President/CEO.
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Admitting More Immigrants Would Provide More Workers
(By Neil Munro)
Would you believe we're running out of workers in this country?
It's true, especially those capable of serving in our technology industry--computer programmers, for example. Some employers in Oakland County reportedly are having a problem finding enough workers.
But something can be done to ease the squeeze, as they say.
And U.S. Sen. Spencer Abraham is working on it.
He has introduced legislation to increase the number of temporary immigrants who can come here to work in high-skilled occupations. A 1990 law limits their ranks to 65,000 annually.
This year, that is expected to be reached by summer. Just a year or so ago, it came into play for the first time. And if there is no change, the limit will be enforced earlier next year, even sooner the year after that, and so on.
Abraham's bill would increase the cap to 90,000 this year, automatically increase that by 25,000 if it is reached, and automatically keep moving it upward in subsequent years.
The obvious question is why can't employers find such workers in this country?
It seems youngsters aren't being encouraged or trained to enter the field--the old disconnection between education, people's expectations and the real world.
In addition, there have been published complaints that too many employers are unwilling to hire older qualified Americans who say they can't re-enter the high-tech work force they left.
Both those who meet that definition and people who oppose added immigration argue that some employers prefer younger, cheaper workers who are willing to put in more hours than they perhaps should.
Whatever the truth of all this may be, the fact is a significant employee shortage in the computer industry--or any other industry--would likely end the nation's longest-running economic boom. That boom began in 1990.
We really wouldn't want to end up with a lot of Americans lining up for unemployment checks again.
Except for largely rural backwaters and resort areas in which work is highly seasonal, joblessness is all but unknown in Michigan.
The unemployment rate in Oakland County, for instance, is just 3 percent of the work force--about the number of people normally between jobs because they're changing them voluntarily.
Of course, there's nothing bad about immigrants. Except for native Americans, our families all originally are from somewhere else. Abraham's bill no doubt will face opposition for the above-mentioned reasons. But it's hard to imagine that the nation dares do without it.
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Fruits of the Bumper Job Crop
(By Donald Lambro)
The continuing decline in America's jobless rate to 4.6 percent, the lowest level in nearly 30 years, is welcome news. We added another 310,000 workers to payrolls last month, and more than 3.4 million over the past year.
``It's worker heaven driven by consumer heaven. There are more jobs for more people with more pay and more worker power than in decades. It's stunning,'' economist Allen Sinai told The Washington Post's business reporter John Berry.
Traditionally, economists have viewed full employment to be around 4 percent. That is the normal percentage of people who are at any given time out of work because of layoffs, bankruptcies or job changes. So, with some exceptions (in West Virginia the jobless rate is a bleak 6.4 percent), we are at nearly full employment in the economy right now.
But this good news on the job front masks a serious labor force problem that is not getting the news media attention it deserves: not enough qualified workers to meet the growing demand of America's expanding high-tech industries.
Sen. Spencer Abraham of Michigan put this issue into sharp perspective in a recent speech in the Senate:
``All is not well with this crucial sector of our economy. American companies today are engaged in fierce competition in global markets. To stay ahead in that competition, they must win the battle for human capital. But companies across America are faced with severe high-skilled labor shortages that threaten their competitiveness in this new Information Age economy.''
A study by Virginia Tech for the Information Technology Association of America finds there are now more than 340,000 unfilled, high-skilled U.S. jobs in the information technology industry. And this excludes government agencies, non-profits, mass transit systems and businesses with 100 employees or less.
In this one high-tech field alone, the U.S. Department of Labor projects that American businesses will create more than 130,000 information technology jobs a year over the next 10 years. That's 1.3 million job openings. But our colleges and universities are producing less than a fourth of the number of qualified graduates needed to fill them.
The National Software Alliance, a consortium of industry, government and academic leaders, recently concluded that
``The supply of computer science graduates is far short of the number needed by industry.''
This is a critical problem that threatens to undermine economic growth and new job creation. Computer hardware and software industries have become one of the fastest-growing sectors of our economy and now account for about a third of our economic growth rate. A study by the Hudson Institute, an Indiana think tank, warns that if this shortfall persists, it will result in a 5 percent decline in the rate of economic growth--the equivalent of $200 billion in lost output.
High-tech companies around the country are already reporting that they have had to forgo major new contracts because they cannot find enough skilled workers to fulfill them. This is resulting in untold billions of dollars in lost business and lost employment opportunities.
Mr. Abraham has a short-term solution to this problem and a long-term one as well.
In the short term, he proposes we modestly raise the immigration restrictions on the entry of skilled workers from abroad by about 25,000. The number of allowable skilled temporary workers has been frozen at 65,000 for nearly a decade and last year businesses reached that yearly limit by the middle of August. This year that limit could be reached in May.
His bill, the American Competitiveness Act, also takes a long-term approach to the problem, offering $50 million to pay for more than 20,000 scholarships each year for low-income students in the fields of math, engineering and computer sciences. It also contains some additional funding to train unemployed workers for related high-tech jobs.
No doubt his bill will be attacked by the protectionists and nativists who continue to believe immigrants are a net cost to our economy when, as the declining jobless rate overwhelming shows, they are a net plus as workers and job-creating employers.
But there is a very strong argument against the anti-immigration offensive that every American will understand:
``If American companies cannot find home-grown talent, and if they cannot bring talent to this country, a large number are likely to move key operations overseas, sending those and related jobs currently held by Americans with them,'' Mr. Abraham told his Senate colleagues last week.
Needless to say, his bill has a lot of support among hundreds of high-tech executives like T. J. Rodgers, chief executive of Cypress Semiconductor, Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems, and Bill Gates, head of Microsoft, all of whom are desperate for skilled workers. Mr. Gates and Mr. McNealy alone have 4,522 technical job openings right now that they cannot fill.
``Raising these [skilled immigrant] caps . . . would be a good thing for the technology industry and for the country,'' Mr. Gates told the Senate earlier this month.
Not too many years ago the overriding issue in our country was unemployment and job security. Today it is skilled, high-paying jobs going begging and the specter of the mighty American economy turning away business opportunities and markets because it lacks qualified workers.
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